Jurassic Park III (2001)
The premise: Isla Sorna is now renowned for being a deadly, dinosaur-infested island, but a young Eric Kirby (Trevor Morgan) and his mother’s new partner, Ben Hildebrand, decide to parasail around it anyway, while on vacation. A dinosaur attack on their support boat leads to them crashing on the island, and Eric’s separated parents come together to trick the now-famous Dr Grant (Sam Neill) into accompanying them to the island to search for him. Under the pretence of funding his research in exchange for an aerial tour of Isla Sorna, Paul and Amanda Kirby (William H. Macy and Tea Leoni) reveal their true motivations after a dinosaur attack causes the plane to crash, stranding their group on the island.
The groundbreaking stuff: As the third film in a franchise that began by creating new technology, Jurassic Park III had its work cut out to bring something new to the screen – and it does so by focusing on dinosaurs that have not been central to the story before. The first two films generally hung around the necks of the Tyrannosaur and the Velociraptor but, while those two continue to feature, the Spinosaurus is the main predator here, with support from several Pteranodons.
The highlights: It is good to have Dr Grant (Sam Neill) back onscreen, and in this film, we also revisit the character of Dr Sattler (Laura Dern) – whose appearances are brief, but integral to the plot. There are several set-pieces that punctuate the search-and-rescue premise, but by far the most notable is the sequence that follows the group’s realisation that they are standing in a giant dinosaur aviary. This is the big, impressive reveal of the Pteranodon and, as it snatches the young Eric from a walkway to feed its own young, the scene becomes an aerial pursuit, with Dr Grant’s assistant – Billy Brennan (Alessandro Nivola) giving chase with a parachute.
The lowlights: This is the first Jurassic Park movie made without Steven Spielberg’s direction (though he remains an executive producer), and without specific source material from Michael Crichton. Joe Johnston (Captain America: The First Avenger) calls the shots here, and the script is written by Peter Buchman (Eragon), Alexander Payne (The Descendants) and Jim Taylor (Sideways). Though several scenes are lifted from unused sections of the Jurassic Park and The Lost World source novels – including the aviary sequence – the rest is original material. The absence of the Spielberg-Crichton partnership as the driving force behind the movie is obvious throughout.
In terms of character, there is little of interest. The central issue of the fractured Kirby family falls flat due to what essentially amounts to miscasting – with Tea Leoni (Amanda) and Trevor Morgan (Eric) being the weaker links. The running theme of Brennan stealing Velociraptor eggs is too close of a call-back to The Lost World and its protective Tyrannosaur, while the recurring joke of a Spinosaurus having swallowed a satellite phone seems incongruous at best. In addition, while Jurassic Park and The Lost World pivoted on the actions of two female characters, the female lead here has very little to do beyond running and screaming her son’s name. Overall, the moral questions that provided the backbone of Jurassic Park feels entirely absent here – despite a brief sojourn through a ruined facility full of failed dinosaur creations in jars. The fact that this particular reveal lacks power and emotional impact ultimately undermines the entire endeavour.